Who Lives, Who Dies, and You're Running Out of Time
by Ackleholic89
Summary: Originally posted on stydia-fanfiction tumblr. Written for the prompt: Lydia is forced to choose between who lives and who dies, but it's hard when it's two of her closest friends, Stiles and Scott. Who will she choose or will she save both and die herself?


**A/N: So I forgot to post this... Oops? This was from a prompt on stydia-fanfction on tumblr. FYI...super intense to write.**

* * *

Lydia's eyes opened slowly. Her vision was blurry and she couldn't make out anything except for the fact that she was laying on the floor in a white room . She heard voices but they sounded distorted and so far away.

"Lydia!" She finally heard. It was clear, but still sounded distant.

"Stiles?" She murmured, and sat up. Her head began to ache and she put her hand up to sooth it. She tried to recall how she ended up here, but she couldn't. The last thing she remembered was being in the jeep with Scott and Stiles.

"Lydia! Stiles!"

"Scott?" She asked in a normal even voice. She shakily stood to her feet.

"Lydia! Are you there?" She heard Stiles yell again. It sounded like it was coming through the wall on the right side of the room.

"Stiles?" She said his name again, and ambled over to the wall, throwing her hands against it. "Stiles!" She yelled this time.

"Lydia! Oh thank God! Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"I'm okay…I think."

"Stiles!" Scott yelled.

"He's here!" Lydia yelled back.

"Who's here?" Stiles asked as the same time that Scott said, "Are you guys okay?"

"Stiles, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"We're okay, Scott!"

The wall that Lydia was leaning against began to rumble and a door opened. Stiles quickly rushed through, and the door closed behind him.

"Lydia!" He threw his arms around her, then pulled back holding her head and looking at her face. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah." She nodded. "My head hurts, but I'm good."

"Stiles?"

"Scott!" Stiles yelled his best friend's name and ran to the left wall where his voice was coming from. "Hold on, buddy." He began feeling along the wall.

"What are you doing?" Lydia asked him.

"There was a door on that side, maybe there's one on this one too." The wall began to quake suddenly, and a door opened and Scott came through with that door closing behind him as well.

"What happened?" Lydia asked. "Where are we?"

"Welcome." A voice over a loud speaker said. Stiles protectively stood in front of Lydia. (As if he could protect her from a voice.) "We're going to play a game."

"Well that doesn't give me scary movie vibes at all." Stiles mumbled.

"Three of you came in here, but only two can leave."

"What?" Scott took a step forward to stand in front of the other two.

A small door opened at the base of the back wall and a gun sat there. "There's only one bullet. Only one shot. "

"You can't be serious." Lydia gripped on to Stiles and Scott.

"Oh, I am. And since you're the harbinger of death. You decide who makes it out, Ms. Martin."

"What?" Lydia and Stiles questioned simultaneously.

"No!" Scott said defiantly. "I'll decide." He grabbed the gun out of its space and the door closed.

"I wouldn't do that it if I were you." The voice teased.

"Why not?" Scott asked.

"If anybody but Lydia makes the decision, or time runs out, you all die. You've got ten hours. Good luck."

A digital clock appeared on each wall, ceiling and floor and began ticking down from 10:00:00.

"I can't do this." Lydia said as she shook her head and backed away from the two of them. "I can't choose."

"We'll figure something out." Stiles assured, and reached for her arm.

Lydia immediately jerked back.

"Lydia?" Scott said her name softly. Lydia took a deep breath and Stiles reached his hand out again. She put her hand hesitantly into his.

"We're going to get out of here." Stiles told her and she nodded. Scott placed the gun on a small round table near where they were standing, and they all subconsciously backed away.

* * *

"I can't do it anymore." Lydia sniffed, her throat was sore from screaming. "I'm hurting you." Stiles and Scott both had blood trickling out of their ears, and Scott didn't seem to be healing.

The wolf let out a huge breath and collapsed against a wall. He'd been punching walls for five hours and something around them was draining his strength and making him weak. He tried howling, but they were pretty sure that something in the walls was absorbing the sound.

"It's okay," Stiles told her.

"No! It's not. It's not okay." He reached for her and she smacked his hand away. "Stop! Don't try to comfort me, okay? I just need you guys to leave me alone."

"We'll come up with something! We still have time!"

"Okay, Stiles. You know what?" She snapped. "How about you sit there and live in your fantasy world where everything turns out okay, while I sit here and try to figure out how to play God!"

* * *

If they didn't have the clock constantly reminding them how long they had left, they would have lost track of how long they were in there.

The clock read 00:45:32.

They all sat in separate corners of the room each one more dejected than the other. They weren't getting out of here. No one was going to save them. Lydia would have to make the decision. It had been silent for such a long time, each lost in their own thoughts. Finally, Scott spoke up.

"Kill me."

"What?" Lydia asked as she and Stiles both looked up at their leader.

"One of us has to die. I'm your alpha, I'm probably the one to get us into this mess to begin with, so you should kill me."

"No." Stiles said adamantly. "It needs to be me. You wouldn't even be a werewolf if it wasn't for me, so ultimately everything that's happened is my fault, it should be me."

Lydia shook her head and bit her lip. "I can't believe you two! I don't know how you expect me to pick between the two of you. Scott, you're like my best friend, and Stiles I-" Stiles waited with baited breath for her to finish her sentence. She took a deep breath. "I just…I can't choose."

Scott growled and stood up. "If you don't decide, we're all going to die anyway…and I've been keeping things to myself for far too long."

"Scott," Stiles warned as he stood to his feet as well.

"No. Lydia, Stiles loves you. He's been in love with you since the third grade, and Stiles, I'm pretty sure Lydia's in love with you too. And you guys deserve to be happy. You deserve to be together. So, Lydia you have to do this. You have to shoot me."

Lydia shook her head. "It doesn't matter, Scott. Because if you die, then I'll have killed his best friend." She let out a shaky sob, and rose to her feet too. "How, can I expect him to still love me and be with me, when I know that every time he looks at me, he'll just be imagining this moment?"

"I love how you're talking like I'm not just standing right here." Stiles said as he took a few steps toward them. "Don't I have a say in this?"

"No." Lydia and Scott both said at the same time.

"Okay, no." Stiles shook his head. "Listen to me!" Scott and Lydia both turned to him, and he paused at the sudden realization they were actually listening to him like he'd asked. "Okay... Look, Lydia...Scott's right. I love you. I'm in love with you. But let's be honest. I'm the weakest one here. You guys leave this room and you've got super powers...like actual super powers. And what do I do? I just figure things out...and I'm figuring it out right now. I'm the weakest link. It has to be me."

Lydia shook her head as her lip trembled. "No...no I can't. I won't."

"Do it, Lydia."

"Stiles," Scott tried.

"Shut up, Scott." Stiles said quickly. "Lydia..."

She shook her head again. "No..."

"Shoot me! Shoot me, Lydia! Shoot me!" With every shout, he got louder and his voice sounded more crazed. It was very reminiscent of when the nogitsune had taken over and taunted his father and Argent. "Do it, Lydia! Shoot me!"

The three had moved closer and closer to the the center of the room, and Lydia quickly grabbed the gun from the small table and aimed it at Stiles's chest.

"No!" Scott said quickly. Stiles held his hands up in surrender, tears threatening to fall. Lydia's hand shook with the gun in it.

Stiles nodded slowly. "It's okay. I forgive you."

Suddenly, the gun became steady in her hand as she said, "But I would never be able to forgive myself," and brought the gun to her head.

"No no no!" Stiles said quickly and he and Scott both took a step toward her and she took a few steps back.

"This is the only way." she tried to reason with them. "I can't live, knowing either of you would hate me for making the wrong decision."

"This right here is the wrong decision." Scott tried to reason. He held out his hand. "Give me the gun."

Lydia shook her head. "It has to be me. I have to make the decision. I choose to save the two of you."

"You're not saving me by doing this, Lydia." Stiles told her, on the verge of breaking down. "I wouldn't be able to..." He let out a sob. "I can't lose you."

"I'm sorry." She sobbed as tears dripped down her cheeks. "At least you'll get to live this way."

Stiles shook his head. "A life without you isn't one that I want."

"I don't want a life without you either, and whether I kill you or Scott, I've lost you either way. So, call this a selfish decision."

"Lydia, please, let's think about this again." Scott tried once more.

"I love you." She told Scott, then turned to Stiles. "I love both of you. I just wish I'd told you sooner."

She pulled the trigger as Scott and and Stiles both shouted, "No!"

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Click!

The room got silent, except for the heavy breathing. Lydia's hand began to shake again as she pulled the gun away from her head and stared at the piece in her hand.

"What the hell just happened?" Stiles asked out loud, knowing neither of his friends knew the answer. "Is it empty?"

Scott took the gun out of Lydia's hand slowly as it seemed she was in shock, and the full weight of what had almost happened hadn't settled in yet. He pulled out the magazine to reveal the bullet.

"The bullet's there. It looks like the gun jammed."

"Oh my God." Lydia sudden fell to her knees as her whole body shook. "Oh my God! Oh my God!" She repeated it over and over again.

"Hey, Lydia?" Stiles went over to her and knelt down in front of her, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Lydia looked up after several moments and before she could recognize what she was doing, she was grabbing his face and kissing him, barely giving him time to respond before pulling away. "I''m so sorry." She told him. "I'm so so so so sorry."

"Scott?" The three looked up as they heard Liam's voice come over the intercom. "Are you there?"

"Liam?!" Scott yelled back.

""Yeah, are Stiles and Lydia with you?"

"They're here. We're all safe." Scott look back at Stiles who was kneeling on the floor with Lydia's face buried into his neck.

"We're trying to get the doors opened. Give us a moment."

"You're okay." Stiles whispered over and over in Lydia's ear as he rubbed her back soothingly. "We're all okay. We're getting out of here."

A couple of minutes later, Lydia pulled away from him, and he lifted his hand to stroke a piece of hair out of her face. "Just do me a favor?" Lydia looked up at him. "Please, never do that to me again." She nodded. "I don't know what I would have done." This time, it was him pulling her in to hug her once more.

Liam finally got a third door opened, that led to a hallway and Scott walked out, leaving the other two behind to have their moment.

It wasn't until he got home that night that he finally let himself break down.


End file.
